IOLA - Iola-Scandinavia school leaders want state lawmakers to allow government agencies to charge people more for access to public records, including for lawyers to decide what information to keep hidden.

School board members unanimously approved a resolution in March that said the district spent roughly $27,000 on legal and administrative fees for processing records requests by community members and news outlets in 2017. The school board argues that the costs of complying with Wisconsin's open records law are too burdensome on taxpayers and school children.

Parents, community members and news media, including USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin, asked the school district for a series of records last year seeking answers about why a popular school administrator had suddenly been placed on leave and forced to resign.

The board voted last month to ask state Rep. Kevin Petersen and Sen. Luther Olsen “to develop legislation that empowers School Districts to charge for legal fees, administrative fees, and redaction fees related to public records requests so that taxpayers and kids no longer have to shoulder the burden.”

Kristen Hoyord, president of the Iola-Scandinavia School Board, said at the March 12 meeting that the resolution grew out of concern that smaller school districts must pay for all the legal fees when they hire lawyers to help respond to records requests. She said the district isn't opposed to releasing public records.

“People have the authority to request open records, but all of that cost is falling on school districts," she said. "Who does it hurt? It doesn’t hurt me. It doesn’t hurt the person that’s requesting it. It hurts our students.”

The school board faced public scrutiny for months after School Administrator David Dyb departed unexpectedly. First, the board said he was on a paid sabbatical, then it announced in April 2017 that he had resigned.

The board said in the resolution it passed last month that it could have used the $27,000 to pay for items that include part of a starting teacher’s salary, new band uniforms and concussion-safe football helmets.

According to a law firm invoice issued to the school district in 2017, school officials paid thousands of dollars for legal services that involved reviewing of records requests, redacting public records, attending school board meetings and a number of other line items.

In November 2016, voters in the school district passed a referendum allowing the district to exceed state revenue limits and provide Iola schools with about $6.6 million over five years for school operations and capital expenses. In July 2017, the board learned it had a $270,000 budget surplus from 2016-2017.

State law says government agencies can charge requesters of public records only for the “actual, necessary and direct costs” in four key areas, which include: reproducing and transcribing a record; photographing and photographic processing; locating a record if the costs exceed $50; and mailing or shipping of copies of records.

The law does not allow agencies to charge members of the public requesting records for redaction or legal review of records. The law does not require government officials to hire outside law firms to conduct review or redaction of records but does specify exemptions that allow the redaction of certain types of information, citing privacy concerns.

Dan Rossmiller, government relations director for the Wisconsin Association of School Boards, argues this often requires legal counsel — or someone with similar qualifications — to review the records because smaller school districts aren't equipped with the expertise needed to comply with exemptions. Rossmiller said processing, reviewing and redacting records can be an expensive process.

Bill Lueders, president of the Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council, disagrees with Rossmiller's assessment. Lueders said officials took it upon themselves to incur these fees by overcomplicating the process and that the law makes it clear what records and information must be released and what can be withheld.

"What are they doing in the school district that's so complicated (to require legal counsel), building hydrogen bombs?" Lueders said.

The Iola-Scandinavia board wants people who ask for records to pay for "all actual, necessary and direct costs" instead of just the handful of costs laid out by the Legislature.

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David Dyb(Photo: Jacob Byk/USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin)

Among the district's public records were documents, obtained by USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin, that showed Dyb and officials agreed to keep his resignation secret for months and that he was leaving involuntarily. He continued to earn his $108,267 annual salary during his sabbatical and before his resignation became effective in June.

The resignation agreement called for the district to also pay him $15,000 in addition to $9,161, representing his unused vacation benefits as of Dec. 2, 2016.

Dyb told USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin in July 2017 that he was never told why the school board wanted him to stay out of the district for the last semester of the 2016-2017 school year and not return for a new contract.

The school board, in the resolution it passed in March, criticized even the need to turn over the records related to Dyb's departure.

“(T)he information obtained to fuel the investigation has not been used by the requesters to prove any School Board wrongdoing regarding this matter,” the resolution reads.

Lueders said the language implies the school district believes records requests are valid only when officials do something wrong. He noted that public records often show that government acts in appropriate ways.

“To pawn this off on people who request records is completely offensive,” Lueders said.

“It’s a blown opportunity for your school district to build trust by ... being on the up and up about how it conducts itself," he said. "It’s kind of heartbreaking because they’ve blown it so entirely with a stunt like this.”

Iola-Scandinavia is not the only Wisconsin school board to seek state law changes so that members of the public have to pay more to get access to open records. Rossmiller said the legal requirementsfrom complying with open-record exemptionsare a "significant burden" on smaller school districts or local governments.

In 2012, the Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel in a dispute with the city of Milwaukee after the city tried to charge reporters for redaction costs. Justices in the case acknowledged that voluminous records requests can be time-consuming and cost-intensive for smaller governments but said such an issue was for the Legislature to decide on.

In response, the Wisconsin Association of School Boards passed a resolution in 2013 similar to Iola's calling for changes to open records laws that would allow agencies to charge for legal review and redaction. It did not lead to new laws.

Rossmiller said that his organization's members are looking for some sort of financial recourse for the cost of large records requests.

Lueders, whose nonprofit, nonpartisan organization advocates for access to open meetings and records, said he doesn’t see Iola’s resolution going anywhere. And he said any legislation like this would cause a chilling effect on public records requests because no one would be able to afford them.

Iola's resolution came weeks before Tuesday's nonpartisan election where Hoyord, the school board president, is up for reelection. Diana Jones is challenging Hoyord. Jones was one of the people seeking records after Dyb’s departure and was a critic of the board’s handling of the issue.

Jones questioned the timing of the resolution.

“For an incumbent who says she wants transparency, bringing up the past right before an election and seeking legislation to remove the checks and balances for a public entity comes up short,” Jones said in a statement. “I guarantee that this type of legislation will deter anyone from seeking public records because they won’t be able to afford it.”

Hoyord did not return requests for comment on the resolution or her opponent’s accusation.

Vice President Mike Koles released a jointstatement with district Administrator Ray Przekurat in response to requests for comment.

“We absolutely support the right of the public and media to know all that can be legally provided," they said. "We also support investing as much of the taxpayer provided school funding directly into students. When parties make wide ranging request for hundreds and sometimes close to thousands of emails, we feel it is the responsibility of those making the request to fully cover the costs of obtaining the information.”

The district has not sent a copy of the resolution to the lawmakers, they said. Petersen and Olsen, the state lawmakers named in Iola's measure, did not return requests for comment on whether they would draft legislation based on the resolution.